Epidemiology of self-medication with modern medicines among health care professionals in Nekemte town, western Ethiopia
Sado et al. BMC Res Notes
Epidemiology of self-medication with modern medicines among health care professionals in Nekemte town, western Ethiopia
Edao Sado 0
Endashaw Kassahun 2
Getu Bayisa 1
Mohammed Gebre 1
Ayana Tadesse 1
Balisa Mosisa 3
0 Pharmacoepidemiology and Social Pharmacy Unit, Department of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences, Wollega University , P.O.Box 395, Nekemte , Ethiopia
1 Clinical Pharmacy Unit, Department of Pharmacy, College Health of Sciences, Wollega University , Nekemte , Ethiopia
2 Boru Meda Hospital, Amhara National Regional State , Dessie , Ethiopia
3 Pharmaceutics Unit, Department of Pharmacy, College Health of Sciences, Wollega University , Nekemte , Ethiopia
Objective: Self-medication is defined as use of medicines to treat self-recognized illnesses. It is widely used in Ethiopia. However, its extent of use is unknown among health professionals. This study aimed to assess prevalence and reasons of self-medication with modern medicines among health professionals. A cross-sectional study was conducted on the health professionals, working in the public health facilities. Data were collected from March to May, 2016 using semi-structured questionnaire. Data were entered and analyzed using statistical package for the social sciences. A chi square test was used as test of significance at 95% of confidence interval. Results: A total of 154 health professionals were enrolled, with 53% were being females. The finding revealed that prevalence of self-medication with modern medicines was 67.5%. Financial constraints (32.5%) and familiarity with medicines (24%) were the major reasons of self-medication. It also showed that self-medication with modern medicines was significantly associated with marital status (χ2 = 19.57, P = 0.00). Analgesics (53%) and antibiotics (36%) were the most commonly used categories of medicines. Self-medication with modern medicines was highly practiced among health professionals. Financial constraints and familiarity with medicines were the two major reasons of practicing.
Self-medication; Modern medicines; Ethiopia
Introduction
Self-medication is defined as use of medicines by
individuals to treat self recognized illnesses [
1
]. It includes
diagnosing and treating one’s own illness and
prescribing for one’s self [
2, 3
]. It is highly practiced in developing
countries, which might be due to availability of medicines
from informal sectors such as open marker, supermarket,
and inadequate health care services [4]. Self-medication
with both over the counter and prescription only
medicines are common in developing countries [
5
].
Health professionals are familiar with medicines so
they are different from the other population in terms
of medicine use [
6
]. Knowledge and access to
prescription medicines are potential factors for self-prescribing
among health professionals. Other factors that are often
quoted include the complaint of extensive demands on
their time, issues of privacy and confidentiality [
6
]. Health
professionals expect that their patients to seek
appropriate health care when they get sick. However, they do not
seek appropriate health care by themselves. For example,
they might be inappropriately self-medicate with
prescription only medicines, which lead to irrational use of
medicines [
7, 8
]. This might be due to a perception that
self-prescribing with prescription only medicines such
as narcotics analgesic is safe; which is not allowed even
illegal for self-prescribing [
8, 9
]. Various studies showed
that they self-medicate with modern medicines without
consulting other health care professionals, which lead
to development of pill for every ill culture in the
medical community. Self-medication with modern medicines
has many problems. The major problems are over
prescribing, misuse, use of unnecessary expensive drugs and
overuse of antibiotics. These problems are great issues of
global concern [
10, 11
].
A study conducted in India showed that a lower degree
of illness is the main reason of practicing self-medication
among health professionals [
12
] while studies done in
Malaysia and Pakistan showed familiarity with treatment
as a main reason of practicing self-medication [
7, 13, 14
].
Though different studies have been conducted in
different parts of Ethiopia, the extent of self-medication among
health professionals is not assessed yet. Therefore, this
study was conducted to assess prevalence of
self-medication with modern medicines among health care
professionals; and to identify major reasons of self-medicating.
Main text
Methods
Study setting and study design
The study was conducted on health care
professionals, who were working in the public health care facilities
found in a Nekemte town, western part of Ethiopia. The
town is located at 328 km away from Addis Ababa, the
capital city of the country. The town was selected as it is
the largest and most populous town in the western part
of Ethiopia. At the ti (...truncated)